Filthy Rich – 4

A four-episoder about Jeffrey Epstein that is unpleasant, repetitive, overlong and maddeningly uninformative. We get dozens of the “what” – “Then he turned over…” – but none of the why or how and very little of the who. For years he preyed on unfortunate teenage girls, but their stories are the same. How did he get away with it? Who made the corrupt deal with the U.S. attorney? How did he get so rich – especially since he had a massage and sex every day instead of working? To whom was he trafficking the girls? What caused his perversion? What was his relationship with Bill Clinton? Woody Allen? Allen Dershowitz? Who else? What about his deal with Harvard (unmentioned)? What about the photos found on his computer? The visuals were also maddening: over and over we saw the same contemporary shots of Palm Beach and the same tabloid shots of Epstein (and Maxwell). The filmmakers also used a technique that bugs me (also overused in Liz Garbus’s new documentary about the Golden State killer): reenacting without faces or any identifying mark an incidental action – walking to the beach, drinking coffee – to illustrate what the narrator is saying. The material here was about enough for 90 minutes, not four hours; and even then it would have just been a warm-up to the real story.

Hamilton – 7.5

First, let me say I thought the production for the screen was sensational. This was so much better than seeing the play on stage – although I admit when we saw it on Broadway early in its run our seats were far away and we couldn’t distinguish many of the lyrics. On the TV screen, we not only got close-ups of the actors, we used closed-captioning, which solved any problem of unintelligibility. The other big problem, however,  remained: I felt I was being given a history lesson, not a Broadway show. Incidents were included not for the dramatic sense they made, but to check off chapters in Ron Chernow’s biography, which, unfortunately, I had just read before seeing the play. To take one example: we hear of Hamilton’s son Phillip when he is born, then next when he defends his father, has a duel and is killed. We haven’t been made to care about him as we would have in a play about a fictional family, say. Nor is the relationship with the Schuyler sisters developed fully or properly. It is instead always seemingly in conflict with the political drama. The music is what it is: a variety of styles, some of which are more appealing to me than others. But a fair amount is more pounding than melodic; it builds the momentum of the play but is not something you want to hum, or hear again. Finally, and sadly, I confess to being underwhelmed by Lin-Manuel’s acting and singing. His genius is in writing the play, its songs and lyrics, not to mention the concept of having Blacks portraying the Founding Fathers. But he never impressed me as “Hamilton.” Maybe my idea of Hamilton is totally false, coming as it does mainly from the $20 bill, but Miranda didn’t convince me that he could devise, or would even be interested in devising, the nation’s financial system. He was like a frisky puppy, jumping from one thing to the next, lacking the gravitas I wanted at the center of the play. Granted, he took liberties with all the other characterizations – see, e.g., Thomas Jefferson – and there’s no reason Hamilton had to be historically correct, or even close. But I would have liked a central figure that I cared more about, a hero – even a tragic hero – who didn’t just move so effortlessly into the next thing, in this case his legacy. To close on a positive note, I award five stars to the performances of Eliza and Angelica, and Daveed Diggs was an absolute showstopper as Jefferson and, as a warm-up, Lafayette. Everyone’s favorite, mine too, was King George III, who not only got the best melody to sing, the best costume, and the best mug, but even with closed-captioning it was a relief to finally hear clearly enunciated words that you didn’t have to run after.

The Last Dance – 8.8

A remarkable ten-episode study of Michael Jordan and his championship Chicago Bulls teams – remarkable both for the inside look it offers at professional athletes and the ambivalent picture it provides of the man who offered this access. I was neither a fan nor particular follower of MJ during his career, but this documentary clearly supports the view of him as the greatest basketball player ever and, along with Muhammad Ali, one of the two most internationally recognized athletes ever. At the same time, it shows that he was not a nice person, as most people would define that term. Not evil, but selfish, inconsiderate and egotistical, a bully when it served his purpose. All of which, it could be argued, made him the winner he was.

Ten episodes might seem long, but the filmmakers kept my attention by constantly toggling back-and-forth between the past and the present (the ’86-’87 season, the “last dance”) and by focusing large chunks of episodes on the almost-as-interesting supporting characters: Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Toni Kukoc, Phil Jackson and lesser figures such as Steve Kerr and John Paxson. Interviews with media figures, such as the always reliable Bob Costas, provided distance, while shots of MJ smoking cigars and watching interviews of his adversaries on an iPad brought an unusual immediacy to the project. Entertaining and riveting.

My Brilliant Friend – 9

Brilliant, indeed. Elena Ferrante’s novel, the second of the quartet, is brought to life by the subtlest of expressions on Lila and Lenu’s faces. Lenu, in fact, makes a total of two short speeches in the course of eight episodes, yet we feel we know what she is thinking every moment. Lila, by contrast, is an enigma, one of the great enigmatic characters of fiction (Ahab? Steerforth?). No one, least of all her best friend Lenu, can read her mind, but we can’t take our eyes off her. Somehow we are able to follow the constellation of the Naples neighborhood that requires an Index of Characters in the book. The settings are gritty and real, but no moreso than the people. Already I miss them.

Da 5 Bloods – 7.5

A hit-and-miss affair from Spike Lee–nowhere as polished as BlackKklansman, but provocative in its looks at race, Vietnam, friendship, greed–remarkable in its aspirations if not its execution. First off, I should say that Delroy Lindo should be a lock for an Oscar nomination, at least, for his performance. Next best was having a range of six Black characters fill the screen; so you didn’t see them as “Black,” you saw them for their distinct personalities. The plot (which I assume was borrowed from Treasure of the Sierra Madre), was serviceable, but that was about all. It was mainly an armature allowing us to get to know, understand and empathize with the Bloods. At the same time, the French woman (white) was great.

Seeing Da 5 Bloods shortly after watching When the Levees Broke about New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina made clear how relevant and important Spike Lee is to the moment of national consciousness-raising we are going through.

When the Levees Broke – 6.5

“Requiem” is a better term than “documentary” for Spike Lee’s four-part history of the people, mostly Black, who suffered through Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. There was little forward momentum in the film: Lee sat us down and made us wallow in the misery of the poor residents and the incompetence and inattention of the government at all levels, from Bush on down. The movie fully and graphically explored the horror of the catastrophe and introduced us to a diverse cast of characters, giving us a real feel for at least one section of New Orleans life. There is another side to the story–perhaps several other sides–but a rounded picture was not Lee’s goal. Instead, he has shown us a picture that, more than anything I’ve seen so far, sets up the two Americas and explains the racial turmoil we’re living through today.

Normal People – 7.6

They say the course of true love never runs smooth, and this sure was a rough ride for Marianne and Connell, so obviously meant for each other but forever finding ways to confuse the issue. The series’ length rather taxed the viewer: C’mon, why are you messing around with that other person, we kept saying. But doe-eyed Daisy Edgar-Jones looked so stunningly beautiful I kept wanting to watch, even as I got impatient with Connell, who couldn’t make up his mind or put together a complete sentence. Her personality, too, was more interesting; and she did a better job aging from high schooler to college graduate than Paul Mescal, who looked closer to 24 all along.

Inside Bill’s Brain – 7.5

Getting such a close-up, personalizing look at one of the major figures of our time alone makes this a worthwhile watch. The succinct, clear elaboration of the three projects addressed in the three episodes – public sanitation, polio eradication, and nuclear power – is skillful. Ultimately, though, the takeaway is a negative one: Bill Gates can offer the brainpower and financial support to solve some of the world’s enormous problems, but mankind’s political pettiness, greed and lust for power stand firmly in the way. (Netflix)

The Painter and the Thief – 3

This documentary is sort of like Normal People, except the people are unattractive, uninteresting, inarticulate and not erotically charged. Barbora is a better painter than interviewer and it’s never clear what she’s looking for or finding in Bertil, who was so drugged he can’t remember why he stole her painting or what he did with it. The only thing more puzzling than why someone made this film is how they did it.

The Restaurant – 6.5

If by having Calle proclaim his undying love for Nina, though they’re both married to others, in the final scene, the makers of The Restaurant hoped to hook me for Season 2, they were sadly mistaken. Manipulate me once, shame on you; manipulate me every five minutes, forget it! What started out as a new and intriguing scenario – a restaurant in post-war Stockholm – with interesting characters, started bouncing all over the place, crisis upon crisis. The beautiful Nina, a free-spirited life force starting her own jazz club against all odds, turned into an unattractive dope addict, bad wife and sister, worse mother. Younger brother Peter, who seemed good, smart and calm, began liaisons with a gangster and the unpleasant, greedy wife of his boss. Gustaf, repulsive from the beginning, alternated between dumb and evil acts without being shown off the stage. And, somehow, the colorless waitress Margareta was elected chair of the restaurant workers’ union, bringing feminism, gay rights and workers’ rights to Sweden while raising a young son as a single mother. By the end of episode 10, there was no one I wanted to spend any more time with. Downton Abbey also occasionally overplotted, but the twists and turns, if too frequent, were more inherently plausible, and the people were so much more charming.